Hi to all 701 owners,
There is a movement to create a 701 serial number / owners registry afoot on the German dualboard.de, which I find interesting. Seeing that the 701 was the first direct drive from Dual and as such the first to leave the idler drive system (belt drive came a bit later), the honour would be fitting.
If so inclined, we could add the serial numbers and our owners ( moniker used on the boards..), to this list and possibly share it here.
Dualboard.de member Veysel (Bricks) had started a list which can be seen here:https://www.dual-board.de/index.php?thr ... /&pageNo=2.
I have added Dualjean's 701 already, but I'm sure there are many more....

There are three divisions for the 701:
701 v 1.1 has the two shielded clear tone arm wires and only two scales on the anti skate dial . This version also has a relay in the motor drive board
701 v 1.2 has the five coloured tone arm (white-red-blue-green-black) non shielded cable, and three Anti Skate markings on the dial, (including cd4).
701 v 2 sees a plastic cover over the front part of the chassis (with the Dual logo) in lieu of the metal plate used on the other two variants.
The relay is also removed form the electronics on this version and possibly the 1.2 version as well.
The serial number can usually be found as shown:

Hi Richard,
Thanks for your reply and permission to publish.
Your unit is placed into the owners list.
I am asking permission to also post these updated 701 owners lists here as well.
If you are not sure which 701 version you have, it's not a problem, as the serial number will help to identify which stage of production your unit belongs to in any case.
Regards,
k

*I know these are built like tanks but unfortunately some examples haven't been loved and appreciated as much as they should have, been parted out or even scrapped during the dark days of vinyl popularity. :cry:

Hi Tink,
Thanks for the info- will have it included in the list.
I am waiting to get the OK to post the list here.
As far as the 701 data is concerned, we do know from DB board member Norbert Kotchenreuther, that it was produced from Q4 of 1972 till end of Q3, 1976.
The exact quantity is however unknown, but some DB members "guestimate" this to be in the 100K range.
This search for the serial numbers will give us a very good indication of that amount.
Regards,
k

We in the UK were always behind the US on many new models, but I seem to remember us getting our first 721's on dem around late 1977 or '78, I can't really remember now as I switched stores full time to our flagship London W1 branch in late '77, but was there for the odd day or two for a good year before this time. I do remember that 701's were well liked and respected by those who knew them, but they weren't the most reliable sadly - I suspect dry solder joints were the bane of this model...

Thanks Dave!
Funny you should say that. I had no problem with the Canadian units. As you might know, Noresco Quebec was responsible for all of eastern Canada, that is to say Quebec and the maritime provinces. At the time, I seem to remember only one motor being changed under warranty. When the unit was new, we had to exchange the motor and send the defective unit back to the labs for inspection.
The main work I had on the 701, was to change over to the low cap cable where I also took the opportunity to revise all units and upgraded the servo board to the non-relay version. Actually I was very happy to pocket the relay....
I'm still waiting to get the permission to post the list here...
Regards,
k

For the final version 2, the top cover on the chassis which contains the Start, Stop switch levers and strobe window, is changed to a plastic cover whereas it was a metal cover with the Dual logo engraved thereupon in the previous 1 and 1.1 versions.
Version 2 also sees the elimination of the relay in the motor control board:

Hi,
The litz cable, I presume was changed from the original.
This is one of the conundrums on the 701. Going by the serial number, it should be a version 1. The CD4 and presumably the lo-cap wires, put it into version 1.1.
Can you check to see if the white AS oval and nut (items 70 and 75) under chassis still has the original glyptol (red or blue) seal?
As I recall, service departments did update units as I did with the servo board. It is not unusual for the unit to have been changed to lo-cap cables and fitted with the newer AS wheel. What does give it away is that the factory seals where broken and visible, even though we used the same glyptol to reseal.
Here is a new pic for the front aluminium panel: